Bedřich Smetana
March 2, 1824 - May 12, 1884
Smetana is considered the musical figurehead of Czech nationalism for his best known known work, a symphonic poem Ma Vlast (My Homeland).
Bedřich Smetana (pronounced) was born in Leitomischl, Czechoslovakia (also known as Bohemia).
Friedrich was the son of František and his wife Barbora.
Known to his family as Fritz, he was the 11th child and their first surviving son.
His father, having managed several breweries in the past brought the family to Leitomischl a province of the Habsburg Empire. They lived in the castle of his father’s employer Count Waldstein.
During this time the nation was under Habsburg law, thus making German the official language of Bohemia, because of this the family spoke German even though they lived in Czechoslovakia.
Bedřich's father knew Czech but because of the law and for social reasons did not use it, the Smetana children were uneducated about the Czech language or culture until much later in their lives.
His father was also an amateur musician and also sold beer to Napoleon’s troops and worked as a brewer for various members of nobility . Because of this involvement with Napoleon’s troops, his family had become reasonably prosperous.
Bedřich was known by his family as Fritz and was introduced to the music scene at the age of 4 by his father.
He then started to learn the violin but he favored the piano more.
He was only 6 in his first public solo performance as pianist playing a transcription of the overture to Auber’s La muette de Portici at an entertainment event honoring Emperor Francis I of Austria.
Although he didn’t have any formal training he started composing when he was 8 years old.
He attended various German schools in Neuhaus, Iglau, and Deutschbrod, up until 1839 when he was 15 years old. In 1839 he started school in Prague, however he was preoccupied with his musical activities and his regular studies began to suffer, as a result he ended up abandoning school completely.
He started to make frequent appearances as pianist at the homes of the more affluent music lovers in Prague as the years continued and he kept on writing.
His true desire to establish a music school where young Bohemian musicians could be trained led to him finally getting a permit in 1848 to found a school of music.
Friedrich was the son of František and his wife Barbora.
Known to his family as Fritz, he was the 11th child and their first surviving son.
His father, having managed several breweries in the past brought the family to Leitomischl a province of the Habsburg Empire. They lived in the castle of his father’s employer Count Waldstein.
During this time the nation was under Habsburg law, thus making German the official language of Bohemia, because of this the family spoke German even though they lived in Czechoslovakia.
Bedřich's father knew Czech but because of the law and for social reasons did not use it, the Smetana children were uneducated about the Czech language or culture until much later in their lives.
His father was also an amateur musician and also sold beer to Napoleon’s troops and worked as a brewer for various members of nobility . Because of this involvement with Napoleon’s troops, his family had become reasonably prosperous.
Bedřich was known by his family as Fritz and was introduced to the music scene at the age of 4 by his father.
He then started to learn the violin but he favored the piano more.
He was only 6 in his first public solo performance as pianist playing a transcription of the overture to Auber’s La muette de Portici at an entertainment event honoring Emperor Francis I of Austria.
Although he didn’t have any formal training he started composing when he was 8 years old.
He attended various German schools in Neuhaus, Iglau, and Deutschbrod, up until 1839 when he was 15 years old. In 1839 he started school in Prague, however he was preoccupied with his musical activities and his regular studies began to suffer, as a result he ended up abandoning school completely.
He started to make frequent appearances as pianist at the homes of the more affluent music lovers in Prague as the years continued and he kept on writing.
His true desire to establish a music school where young Bohemian musicians could be trained led to him finally getting a permit in 1848 to found a school of music.
“With God’s help and grace, I will be a Mozart in composition and a Lizst in technique.” -entry from Smetana's diary on January 23, 1843
It was about this time that the relationship with his father was diminishing.
His father bought an estate in the country where he planned to retire to farm and hunt. However Bedřich wanted to pursue his own passions in music and performing. So he left, and without the ability to sustain the estate on his own, his father had to sell the property and the father/son relationship became irreconcilable.
In 1843 Bedřich moved back to Prague where he met Joseph Proksch. Joseph give Bedřich intensive instruction as well as composition lessons for the first time. During this time he also wrote piano pieces. One of which was his Piano Sonata in G minor. After writing it he proudly showed the piece to Robert and Clara Schumann hoping to seek their approval, but much to his dismay they did not give him the response he had hoped for. They thought it was too Berlioz like.
In 1844 his financial burden was relieved when he was made music teacher for Count Leopold Thun, with whom he stayed with for 4 years teaching the Thun children.
His hopes of establishing a reputation as a concert pianist in Western Bohemia after a short tour did not pan out as he had hoped. Because of that attempt being poorly supported he gave up and went back to Prague where he made his living teaching private piano lessons along with occasional appearances as an accompanist in chamber concerts.
He then began work on his first major orchestral work.
His father bought an estate in the country where he planned to retire to farm and hunt. However Bedřich wanted to pursue his own passions in music and performing. So he left, and without the ability to sustain the estate on his own, his father had to sell the property and the father/son relationship became irreconcilable.
In 1843 Bedřich moved back to Prague where he met Joseph Proksch. Joseph give Bedřich intensive instruction as well as composition lessons for the first time. During this time he also wrote piano pieces. One of which was his Piano Sonata in G minor. After writing it he proudly showed the piece to Robert and Clara Schumann hoping to seek their approval, but much to his dismay they did not give him the response he had hoped for. They thought it was too Berlioz like.
In 1844 his financial burden was relieved when he was made music teacher for Count Leopold Thun, with whom he stayed with for 4 years teaching the Thun children.
His hopes of establishing a reputation as a concert pianist in Western Bohemia after a short tour did not pan out as he had hoped. Because of that attempt being poorly supported he gave up and went back to Prague where he made his living teaching private piano lessons along with occasional appearances as an accompanist in chamber concerts.
He then began work on his first major orchestral work.
“Smetana is more than a mere musician: he is one of the chief builders of modern Czech civilization, one of the chief creators of Czech culture.” –Vladimir Helfert (a Czech musicologist)
1848 is also significant for another reason. Smetana started writing revolutionary pieces of music, which involved him in an unsuccessful movement to overthrow the oppressive Habsburg emperor rule. His involvement had important repercussions later on, for it had awakened a national consciousness in him for the first time.
In 1849 he married his lifelong sweetheart Kateřina Kolářová (it is believed that she had tuberculosis. They had 4 daughters together, 3 died in infancy. Only their daughter Sofie survived.
For unclear reasons (although bold nationalistic moves are suspected) Smetana left for a 5 years to Sweden without Kateřina. He was hired by the wife of a rich merchant in Gothenburg to teach, give recital, and concerts. He even ended up conducting the Gothenburg Philharmonic. On his way back to Prague in 1859 Kateřina died and only a year later he remarried to a woman named Bettina.Though he went back to Gothenburg after he married Bettina he didn’t stay very long. The nationalistic developments in Prague ended up bring him back.
In 1860, when he was 36 he started learning Czech, his real native language.
By 1861 he was back in Prague and it was from then on that he worked diligently to develop the musical culture of his country.
He had a great hand in creating outlets for the Bohemian arts in Prague over the next 2 decades.
He wrote the comic folk opera The Bartered Bride, as well as 2 more operas based on Bohemian legends: Dalibor in 1868 and Libussa in 1871.
In 1874 he complained of a continual whistling in his ears. In his diary he described it as “like the A-flat major chord in the first inversion in the high treble.” Then he heard buzzing and then roaring, “as though I were standing under a waterfall.” Then he could hear absolutely nothing at all.
Later on he writes that “deafness would be a relatively tolerable condition if only all was quiet in my head.” He remained deaf for the rest of his life. However it did not hinder his writing. If nothing else now he would write uninterrupted. It was on the very first day he became deaf that he wrote the main theme of 6 national tone poems, collectively titled Ma Vlast .
Ma Vlast became Smetana’s greatest orchestral monument to Czech nationalism.
In 1882 his last opera written was heard, and was a great disappointment. From then he spiraled in health.
He suffered from a nervous breakdown, and as he worked on his second string quartet against advise from his physicians he gave in to violent depression and mental disturbances.
By April 1883 he was transferred to the Prague insane Asylum where he died on May 12, 1884. He was 60 years old.
A permanent memorial to Smetana's life and work is the Bedřich Smetana Museum in Prague, originally founded in 1926 within the Charles University's Institute for Musicology.
In 1849 he married his lifelong sweetheart Kateřina Kolářová (it is believed that she had tuberculosis. They had 4 daughters together, 3 died in infancy. Only their daughter Sofie survived.
For unclear reasons (although bold nationalistic moves are suspected) Smetana left for a 5 years to Sweden without Kateřina. He was hired by the wife of a rich merchant in Gothenburg to teach, give recital, and concerts. He even ended up conducting the Gothenburg Philharmonic. On his way back to Prague in 1859 Kateřina died and only a year later he remarried to a woman named Bettina.Though he went back to Gothenburg after he married Bettina he didn’t stay very long. The nationalistic developments in Prague ended up bring him back.
In 1860, when he was 36 he started learning Czech, his real native language.
By 1861 he was back in Prague and it was from then on that he worked diligently to develop the musical culture of his country.
He had a great hand in creating outlets for the Bohemian arts in Prague over the next 2 decades.
He wrote the comic folk opera The Bartered Bride, as well as 2 more operas based on Bohemian legends: Dalibor in 1868 and Libussa in 1871.
In 1874 he complained of a continual whistling in his ears. In his diary he described it as “like the A-flat major chord in the first inversion in the high treble.” Then he heard buzzing and then roaring, “as though I were standing under a waterfall.” Then he could hear absolutely nothing at all.
Later on he writes that “deafness would be a relatively tolerable condition if only all was quiet in my head.” He remained deaf for the rest of his life. However it did not hinder his writing. If nothing else now he would write uninterrupted. It was on the very first day he became deaf that he wrote the main theme of 6 national tone poems, collectively titled Ma Vlast .
Ma Vlast became Smetana’s greatest orchestral monument to Czech nationalism.
In 1882 his last opera written was heard, and was a great disappointment. From then he spiraled in health.
He suffered from a nervous breakdown, and as he worked on his second string quartet against advise from his physicians he gave in to violent depression and mental disturbances.
By April 1883 he was transferred to the Prague insane Asylum where he died on May 12, 1884. He was 60 years old.
A permanent memorial to Smetana's life and work is the Bedřich Smetana Museum in Prague, originally founded in 1926 within the Charles University's Institute for Musicology.
Works
Some of his works are as follows:
- Stage Works
- Branibori v Cecháach (The Brandenburgers in Bohemia; opera) JB 1:87
- Certova stena (The Devil's Wall; opera) JB 1:122
- Dalibor (opera), JB 1:101
- Dve vdovy (The Two Widows; opera) JB 1:108
- Hubicka (The Kiss; folk opera), JB 1:104
- Libuse (festival opera); JB 1:102
- Tajemství (The Secret; opera) JB 1:110
- The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevesta; opera), JB 1:100
- Keyboard Works
- Piano Works
- By the Seashore (A Memory), concert etude in G#-, Op.17
- Concert Etude in C, JB 1:73
- 4 Czech Dances, Book 1, JB 1:107
- 10 Czech Dances, Book 2, JB 1:114
- Fantasy on Czech National Songs in B, JB 1:83
- 3 Hochzeitsszenen (Wedding Scenes), JB 1:44
- Louisen-Polka (Louisina Polka) in Eb, JB 1:1
- 3 Polkas de salon, Op.7
- 3 Polkas poetiques, Op.8
- Rêves (Dreams), 6 characteristic pieces, JB 1:103
- 4 Sketches, Op.5
- Sonata movement for 2 pianos, 8 hands in E-, JB 1:47
- Souvenir de Bohême en forme de polkas (Memories of Bohemia), Book 1, JB 1:76, Op.12
- Souvenir de Bohême en forme de polkas (Memories of Bohemia), Book 2, JB 1:77, Op.13
- The Curious One (trans. of 'Der Neugierige' from Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin)
- Bagatelles et impromptus, for piano
- Organ Works
- Orchestral Works
- Bayadere Galop (Galop bajadérek) in C, JB 1:11
- Beseda Polka
- Der Fischer (Rybár), for harmonium, harp and strings, JB 1:97
- Doktor Faust, prelude for small orchestra, JB 1:85
- Fanfares for Richard III, for brass and timpani, JB 1:92
- Festival Overture in D ('Revolutionary'), JB 1:39 (Op.4)
- Hakon Jarl, symphonic poem, Op.16
- Libusin soud (Libuse's Judgment), JB 1:98
- Minuet for Orchestra in Bb, JB 1:10
- Má vlast (My Fatherland), JB 1:112
- Nasim devám (To Our Girls), polka in D, JB 1:86
- Oldřich a Božena (prelude to puppet play by M. Kopecký)
- Pochod k slavnosti Shakespearove (Shakespeare Festival March) in E, JB 1:90 (Op.20)
- Prazský karneval (Prague Carnival), introduction and polonaise, JB 1:126
- Richard III, symphonic poem, Op.11
- Slavnostní predehra (Ceremonial Prelude, 'Festive Overture,' 'Solemn Prelude') in C, JB 1:95
- Suite from Smetana's Sketch-Book: 'Orchestral Exercises' (recons. J. Smolka)
- Symphony in E ('Triumphal), JB 1:59 (Op.6)
- Venkovanka (The Country Woman), polka in G, JB 1:115